Results tagged “publicsafety”

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits...

The Texas Department of Public Safety has plans to change the way Texans renew and change address information on their driver licenses. In fact, the licenses will have a complete makeover. According to KHOU, all changes will have to be made in person, which will cause an increase in the already-packed Motor Vehicle locations. Don't rush to make changes now, though - beginning in 2008, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles will require everyone with...

City Council took the first step Monday toward an ordinance that could restrict where registered sex offenders live, requiring them to live a certain distance from schools, churches and parks and preventing clusters of offenders from living in residential neighborhoods. "You don't have alcoholics living next to a liquor store, and you certainly don't want to have five or six sex offenders living in a neighborhood with children," Andy Kahan with the mayor's crime victims...

If we have to evacuate from a hurricane again — and, for the record, we really hope we don't — things may be a little easier thanks to a contraflow plan now in place on some area freeways. The contraflow, meaning both sides of the freeway would be used to move traffic out of Houston, would begin at Brookshire along I-10, at FM 1960 on Highway 290, at Conroe along I-45 and near Kingwood on Highway 59. If you were around during the Rita evacuation last September, you probably remember how long it took officials to put contraflow lanes in effect because planning wasn't really done in advance. Not so from now on, apparently:

A proposal to tighten the city's midnight curfew for juveniles is a step closer to becoming law: Yesterday, the City Council's Public Safety Committee approved the proposed ordinance, meaning it will likely be up for a full council vote next month — with Mayor Bill White's support. The proposal would institute a 10 p.m. weekday and 11 p.m. weekend curfew for kids younger than 17; those 17 and older wouldn't be subject to the law....

The Texas Department of Public Safety is no-nonsense about keeping the peace in these parts, and Texans seem to be equally no-nonsense about the way DPS officers look: The state has ordered troopers to cover up their tattoos while they're on duty after complaints from the public. The policy went into effect last week for the DPS's nearly 2,700 troopers, who already had to have short hair, shiny shoes and wear no jewelry or piercings...

The city's plan to install red-light cameras at intersections around town was temporarily derailed today when a City Council committee recommended the contractor selection process be redone. Members of the Public Safety Committee said the selection process, which took place earlier this year, was flawed after they heard complaints from the companies that weren't selected for the project.